Books of Survey and Distribution, mid 17th century
A history of Ireland in 100 objects:There are very few plainer objects in this series, but none that is more consequential. The so-called Books of Survey and Distribution, compiled between the 1650s and 1680s, record in microcosm the seismic shift in the ownership of land in Ireland after the Cromwellian conquest. The class of Catholic proprietors, of both indigenous and Anglo-Norman descent, was all but swept away.
These pages, from Book 17, show what happened in just one parish: Kilcaruan in Duleek, Co Meath. On the left-hand page are the names of the owners of lands in 1641, when the great Catholic uprising broke out. On the right-hand page are the names of those to whom the land was given after it had been expropriated. Accompanying the pages is the hand-drawn map of Meath from the Down Survey, which was used to record the major land holdings throughout Ireland so that the project of expropriation could be properly conducted.